The Benedictine monk and biblical scholar Antoine Augustin Calmet (1672-1757) published this work in 1746; it was translated into English in 1850 by Henry Christmas (1811-68). It examines a wide selection of supernatural tales and beliefs from across Europe. Taking the stance of a scientific enquirer, Calmet sought to understand the truth behind stories of good and bad angels, vampires, witchcraft, possession by demons, and the dead who come back to life. He compiled accounts of the supernatural from official reports, newspapers, eyewitness accounts and travel writing, and this two-volume anthology of his collected data analyses the material, noting problems and inconsistencies. Volume 2 investigates tales of vampires and ghosts from many different European countries. Covering a vast repertory of legends, the work paints a vivid picture of the beliefs entertained in an ostensibly Christian era.

Table of Contents

Preface; 1. That the resurrection of a dead person is the work of God only; 2. Revival of persons who were not really dead; 3. Resurrection of a man who had been buried three years, resuscitated by St Stanislaus; 4. Can a man really dead appear in his own body?; 5. Revival or apparition of a girl who had been dead some months; 6. A woman taken alive from her tomb; 7. Revenans, or vampires of Moravia; 8. Dead men of Hungary who suck the blood of the living; 9. Narrative of a vampire from the Jewish Letters, Letter 137; 10. Other instances of revenans. Continuation of the 'Gleaner'; 11. Argument of the author of the Jewish Letters, concerning revenans; 12. Continuation of the argument of the Dutch Gleaner; 13. Narrative from the 'Mercure Gallant' of 1693 and 1694 on revenans; 14. Conjectures of the Dutch Gleaner; 15. Another letter on revenans; 16. Pretended vestiges of vampirism in antiquity; 17. Ghosts in northern countries; 18. Ghosts in England; 19. Ghosts in Peru; 20. Ghosts in Lapland; 21. Return of a man who had been dead some months; 22. Excommunicated persons who went out of churches; 23. Some instances of the excommunicated being rejected or cast out of consecrated ground; 24. Instance of an excommunicated martyr being cast out of the ground; 25. A man cast out of the church for having refused to pay tithes; 26. Instances of persons who have given signs of life after their death, and have withdrawn themselves respectfully to make room for more worthy persons; 27. People who perform pilgrimage after death; 28. Reasoning upon the excommunicated who go out of churches; 29. Do the excommunicated decay in the earth?; 30. Instances to show that the excommunicated do not decay, and that they appear to the living; 31. Instances of these returns to earth of the excommunicated; 32. A Vroucolaca exhumed in the presence of M. de Tournefort; 33. Has the demon power to kill, and then to restore to life?; 34. Examination of the opinion that the demon can restore animation to a dead body; 35. Instances of phantoms which have appeared to the living, and given many signs of life; 36. Devoting people to death, practised by the heathens; 37. Instances of dooming to death among Christians; 38. Instances of persons who have promised to give each other news of themselves from the other world; 39. Extracts from the political works of the Abbe de St Pierre; 40. Divers systems to explain ghosts; 41. Divers instances of persons being buried alive; 42. Instances of drowned persons who have come back to life and health; 43. Instances of women thought dead who came to life again; 44. Can these instances be applied to the Hungarian revenans?; 45. Dead people who masticate in their graves and devour their own flesh; 46. Singular example of a Hungarian revenant; 47. Argument on this matter; 48. Are the vampires or revenans really dead?; 49. Instance of a man named Curma being sent back to this world; 50. Instances of persons who fall into ecstatic trances when they will, and remain senseless; 51. Application of such instances to vampires; 52. Examination of the opinion that the demon fascinates the eyes of those to whom vampires appear; 53. Instances of resuscitated persons who relate what they saw in the other world; 54. The traditions of the pagans on the other life, are derived from the Hebrews and Egyptians; 55. Instances of Christians being resuscitated and sent back to this world. Vision of Vetinus, a monk of Augia; 56. Vision of Bertholdus, related by Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims; 57. Vision of St Fursius; 58. Vision of a Protestant of York, and others; 59. Conclusion of this dissertation; 60. Moral impossibility that ghosts can come out of their tombs; 61. That what is related of the bodies of the excommunicated who walk out of churches, is subject to very great difficulties; 62. Remarks on the dissertation, concerning the spirit whic

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